Thursday, July 24, 2014

Terrain: Imperial Streets 001

Well defined roads has always been a thing on my to do list when it comes to terrain, even if the rules that inspired me to begin with are a few editions out of date now. In the 2001 edition of Chapter Approved, there were optional rules for craters and roads. These rules inspired me to crank out a pile of craters, and I was always dreaming of when I could have some nice Forgeworld Roads... long OOP in 2014. I've finally hit upon an affordable solution to the problem.

With the sidewalks of my terrain being 1/4" thick, I decided that the 1/8" cork I could find locally would make a good road, and there would still be variation between the sidewalk and street when terrain is laid out. I sat for a few minutes, sketching in my graph paper comp book, and the above picture is what I came up with. Using deductive reasoning and the size of the RoB tiles that GW and FW produce, I decided that my roads would be 8" wide.

With a quick bus ride to Home Depot and JoAnn Fabrics, I picked up the needed supplies: a 2'x4' sheet of 1/8" hardboard and two 2'x1' rolls of 3/32" thick cork. With these items secured, I beat a hasty retreat to my sweltering laboratory. Using my square and steel ruler, I marked out the pattern of sections I had laid out in my comp book. Using a sharp utility knife, I then cut out all the pieces of hardboard and the corresponding piece of cork.

Here is what I ended up with. Since the cork came in rolls, it wanted to stay curled up. No worries, I applied PVA glue liberally to the hardboard and the cork sheets, and then sandwiched the all the pieces together under a stack of books. I used a piece of tinfoil between each road section to ensure they wouldn't stick together.

That was last night. Now its 12 hours later, and they the PVA isn't completely dry yet. I did shift the pile and then restack it. Once I get home from work I will see how much more drying they will need.

The cratered section of road will be tackled a bit differently from the rest. Before I add the road, I have to build the craters.

In other news, I surpassed 50000 hits some time yesterday and wanted to say thank you to all.